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07-09-2006, 11:03 PM
Newark Star Ledger: Newark learns a lesson in Baltimore (http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1152419979107890.xml&coll=1&thispage=1). Katie Wang gives us a glimpse of a possible future Newark with Baltimore’s implementation of CitiStat, a city government metrics tracking program that Booker has promised to implement.
Each week in Baltimore City Hall, department heads have to answer to CitiStat, a part-human, part-computer information jugger naut that tracks all services in the city. The system can see if a homeowner’s garbage is collected, if graf fiti is scrubbed from the wall, if potholes are patched. It knows how many firefighters put in for OT and how many cops called out sick. It is an omniscient program that tracks whether government’s basic functions are carried out, and how much money is spent in the process.
Newark will adopt a CitiStat- like program under Mayor Cory Booker. One of Booker’s promises during the mayoral race was to transform City Hall and make it accountable to the residents.
“This is a two-year process to turn around City Hall—at least,” Bo Kemp, the newly appointed business administrator said last month, as he studied CitiStat and other similar programs as part of Booker’s transition team. “For some people, this will all be new. Everyone will have to be trained.”
Each week in Baltimore City Hall, department heads have to answer to CitiStat, a part-human, part-computer information jugger naut that tracks all services in the city. The system can see if a homeowner’s garbage is collected, if graf fiti is scrubbed from the wall, if potholes are patched. It knows how many firefighters put in for OT and how many cops called out sick. It is an omniscient program that tracks whether government’s basic functions are carried out, and how much money is spent in the process.
Newark will adopt a CitiStat- like program under Mayor Cory Booker. One of Booker’s promises during the mayoral race was to transform City Hall and make it accountable to the residents.
“This is a two-year process to turn around City Hall—at least,” Bo Kemp, the newly appointed business administrator said last month, as he studied CitiStat and other similar programs as part of Booker’s transition team. “For some people, this will all be new. Everyone will have to be trained.”